Letters to the Editor
Letter to the Editor | Celebrating completion of PenMet’s Rec Center, and dreaming about what’s next
“A hole-in-one!” I cry, as I high-five my 3rd-grade daughter’s best friend at Peninsula Metropolitan Parks’ newly renovated Neighborhood Greens minigolf course. She and my daughter beam as they bound off to the next hole (crossing the miniature Narrows Bridge), and I smile watching them having innocent, screen-free, outside, fun.
Two weeks earlier, my 6th grade son and I jump into an ongoing game of Gaga Ball at PenMet’s new Community Recreation Center. I’ve never played Gaga Ball before, but my son tells me it’s his favorite thing to do at school. So in I go, all of Millenial-aged me, literally stepping into my son’s world for a moment (while also trying not to lose spectacularly to much younger humans). Alas, I’m an easy target. After I get “out”, my kids and I head over to play ping pong and then grab a FREE sack lunch, courtesy of PenMet’s Summer Mobile Recreation program. Easy time with my kids AND free lunch? My mom-self is feeling like I’m #winning.
The next week, a few girls from our Girl Scout Troop help pack those same lunches like my kids and I had enjoyed, making way for the next parents to have their #winning moment. We finish packing and as we leave we pass a game of basketball that had just begun, noticing that all the players were in wheelchairs.
PenMet Parks “shined a light” on its new Rec Center to highlight Drowning Prevention Day.
It’s only been 3 months since PenMet Parks opened their new facility, and already our community is reaping the benefits.
One drizzling morning, I drove over to use the Rec Center for my morning walk. I had heard the upstairs track was free and it was on my “to-do” list to visit. I arrive and head upstairs, knowing instantly that this is going to be perfect for rainy days. Earpods in, listening to my music, I begin walking the loop. On my right is the Rec Center, completed, a dream turned into a reality. I keep walking and loop around again. On my left are tall windows, looking outside to the cleared lot right behind the Rec Center. A cleared space just waiting; waiting for the next dream to become reality. I loop again, looking at both sides: a completed dream on one side, and the dream of “what’s next” on the other.
Our community desperately needs a public aquatic facility. I still hear about this need all the time in my parental-circles. Parents will discuss where they find swim lessons for their kids in hushed voices, as if swim lessons are a hidden commodity (“You found swim lessons? Where?”). Lesson waitlists are still to be found at the few facilities in our area that do offer lessons. I, myself, still set reminders on my phone hoping to grab an open spot for summer swim lessons for my daughter at the Edwards Family Aquatic Center (i.e. the Fircrest Pool). Our city identifies itself as “the Maritime City”, but yet we don’t have a public pool. And, in order to find swim lessons, my family has to leave our town to go to the other side of the Narrows Bridge.
The author’s 8-year-old daughter at the Fircrest pool this summer.
The Aquatic Center Feasibility study that was presented to the PenMet Parks Board last year showed that: A) Not only is there a need and a desire for a public aquatic facility, but B) such a facility is feasible for our area. The study determined that the most feasible place to put a public aquatic facility would be directly behind PenMet’s new Recreation Center. The dream of “what’s next”, waiting to become a reality.
I go over to the new Recreation Center and think, “look what our community can do!” I feel so hopeful and so proud of our town, seeing how so many people came together to make this new facility a reality. A public aquatic center should be next. The foundation is there, literally and figuratively, and our community is calling for it.
Let’s turn this dream of meeting the water-safety needs of our town into a reality, Gig Harbor. Let’s build a public aquatic facility for our Maritime City!
Heather Maher
Swim Safe Gig Harbor